Trying to capture a Monkey… Smashbomb Atomic I.P.A. clone

I am constantly humbled and grateful for the lovely people at Flying Monkeys Craft Brewery. From the kindness and generosity they showed my friends and I when we visited the brewery for my stag, to the inspiring beers they produce for all of us to enjoy. For me, they are simply one of the best craft breweries in Ontario.

Their highly acclaimed Smashbomb Atomic I.P.A. was an explosion from the start. The LCBO (Liquor Control Board of Ontario) had a beef with it’s packaging, saying that it was in bad taste and/or violent. [as a side note, the unfortunate tsunami and resulting events in Japan had just occurred around the time it was to be released, complicating the LCBO’s decision I’m sure] After some slight revisions to the packaging, Flying Monkeys was able to retain it’s unique style of branding and release Smashbomb to the masses.

I have no illusions that I’m going to be ale to nail this recipe the first time. The complex malt character and incredible velvety hop profile that Flying Monkeys get in their beer is, to me, the pinnacle of brewing. If I’m able to pull a beer out of my keg that tastes like that, it will be the ultimate brewing reward for me. So in an attempt to capture a Flying Monkey, bear with me, this may take a few attempts!

As a demonstration of the enthusiasm and sense of community that Flying Monkeys has, on their website they not only have a description of the beer and how it came to be, but a list of ingredients they use in the beer, including malts, hops, and even the hopping schedule. I’m blown away that a brewery would share this with the world.

From their website:

• Original Gravity: 1.061
• Final Gravity: 1.016
• 6.0% ABV
• 11.72 SRM
• 70 IBU

Malt:

• Briess Victory Malt
• Briess Crystal 60
• Muntons Black Patent Malt
• 2-Row N. American Pale (Metcalf and Copeland)

Hops:

• Early Hops Citra (Wort/mash)
• Early Hops Citra (1Runnings)
• Kettle Hops Citra (Bittering)
• Kettle Hops Citra (15mins Before End Of Boil)
• Kettle Hops Citra (End Of Boil)
• Late Hop Additions Citra (whirlpool)
• Late Hop Addition Centennial (whirlpool)
• Dry Hop Citra / Centennial through Hoppapotamus

I’m going to have to alter the hop additions a bit as I don’t have a system for whirlpooling and I don’t own a “Hoppapotamus” (or hopback). I recently brewed a Red Ale in which I tried a late hop experiment upon the suggestion of a fellow home brewer. The only hop addition I did was a 50/50 ratio of Centennial/Citra at 10mins left in the boil. This addition needed to be quite large to get the necessary IBU’s into the beer, but so far, the hop character in this beer has without a doubt been my favourite, and the closest I’ve been able to come to Flying Monkeys’ beers. What I’m going to do for this recipe is mix a bit of what their site suggests, and a bit from my experience with late hopping.

Also, to get an ABV of 6.0% I need to hit a final gravity of 1.016. There are 1 of two ways to do that; the first is to beef up the specialty malts, and the second is to increase the mash temperature. I tried increasing the specialty malts in my BeerSmith program, but I ended up with a darker beer, so I’ll target a colour of 12 SRM as noted and increase my mash temperature to 156F. I know this isn’t normal for a pale ale or IPA, but I’m going to give it a try anyways. Who knows what the hell Peter Chiodo does up there at the brewery! (There is a third option, trying a less attenuative yeast than Safale US-05, but that will be after figuring out the basics)

Here’s what I’ve come up with for a first run:Carbonation and Storage

You can read about the results here: Reviewing my Smashbomb Atomic IPA clone…

Cheers!